 PROJECT WATCH
Renzo Piano’s Broad Contemporary Art Museum Opens in LA
Renzo Piano’s first building opening since he was named an AIA Gold Medal recipient took place in Los Angeles last month. His $56 million Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which opened its doors on February 16, serves as an integral part of the newly redesigned Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus. Piano’s dual travertine-volumed design refers back to his previous triumph at the Pompidou Center, with its “Renzo Red” external escalator system, but also speaks to contemporary Los Angles’ unique urbanism. A 30-person elevator connects the two volumes, and the new museum houses six loft-like galleries. More than 60,000 visitors came to the LACMA over the Broad Museum’s opening weekend. 
 CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
You Say You Want A Rail~Volution?
Conference on "reshaping communities in an energy-challenged future" takes place October 24-29 in San Francisco
Rail~Volution, an annual conference for people from all professions who “believe strongly in the role of land use and transit as equal partners in the quest for greater livability and greater communities,” has issued a call for speakers and workshop presenters for this year’s conference, to take place October 24–29 in San Francisco. Online proposals are due May 2.
 Emporis Selects The Hague’s “Het Strijkijzer” as the Best New Skyscraper of 2007
Emporis, the international construction industry data cataloguer, has presented the award for the Best New Skyscraper of the Year to a 43-story residential tower in The Hague, Netherlands. Het Strijkijzer, which means “The Flatiron” in Dutch, bears striking formal resemblance to Daniel Burnham’s 1902 Flatiron Building in New York City and, like its namesake, “vees” out from the small point on its site to make efficient use of the land. Designed by AAArchitecten, Het Strijkijzer is the tallest residential tower in The Hague and offers 51 luxury rental apartments and 300 studios for persons aged 18-27. Newton Suites in Singapore, a 36-story “green” residential tower by WOHA Architects Private Limited took the Silver Award, while SOM-London’s 36-story, residential Ontario Tower in London received the Bronze Award. Renzo Piano Building Workshop/FXFowle Architects’ New York Times Tower in New York City, the only tower in the U.S. to place in the top 10, came in sixth. The winning building was chosen using a points system by a jury of 25 people, who chose them from a worldwide pool of 634 eligible skyscrapers (buildings at least 100 meters—or 328 feet—tall) completed in 2007. For more information, visit Emporis’ Web site. (Photo © Michiel van Dijk/Emporis.)
 The New Handbook Is Here!
Order today—AIA Bookstore has a limited special offer for members
The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, Fourteenth Edition, with more than a third of it new content and significant revisions throughout, is now in stock at the AIA Bookstore. Now available in a convenient book/CD package, the Fourteenth Edition contains two CD-ROMs: one that allows easy searching of the entire book via PC, and another that provides samples of all AIA Contract Documents in PDF format for Mac and PC computers. Order the new Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice online at the special member’s introductory price of $199.50 (regularly $225.50) and—for the first 1,000 AIA members ordering—get a free copy of the Architect’s Essentials of Starting, Assessing, and Transitioning a Design Firm, a $65 value. This new, single volume presents the step-by-step guidelines to starting a design firm as well as successfully handling firm growth, new management, internal transitions, mergers, and more. Your free Essentials book will ship together with the Handbook. To order, visit the AIA Bookstore online.
RMJM Presents $1.5 Million to Support Integrated Design Program at Harvard’s GSD
RMJM, the UK-based architecture firm announced on March 17 that it is presenting a $1.5 million gift to support “The RMJM Program for Research and Education in Integrated Design Practice” at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. The gift will support advanced student and faculty research; development of case studies and curricula for use at the master’s, doctoral, and executive levels; and the dissemination of research findings through lectures, conferences, and publications. The program began with a three-day design firm leadership conference at the GSD, attended by CEOs of major design firms from all over the world, as well as faculty from the GSD and the Harvard Business School. The program aims to “encourage more architects to enter the profession by training them to integrate business management principles and a knowledge of advanced technologies with design skills to improve project delivery, client satisfaction, and their firm’s bottom line.” “This program is about initiating the dawn of a new era for the architectural profession,” said RMJM Chief Executive Peter Morrison in a press release. “We passionately believe that tomorrow’s design leaders will be as equally adept and sophisticated commercially and economically as they are architecturally.”
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